Thea Paris isn’t like the guys in thrillers who solve the murders, beat the bad guys, both literally and figuratively, and save the day.

For one thing, the star of K.J. Howe’s “Skyjack” doesn’t deal all that much with plain old murder, working as she does as a kidnap-and-ransom negotiator who wants to get her clients back while they’re still breathing.

For another, she’s a woman, and in the world of thriller novels where the men are hard-nosed and the women more typically...